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Gaming Audio setup with a quality twist

S

Speed-Freak

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 23, 2000
Messages
246
Upgraded my box from an nForce 2 with SoundStorm to an nForce 4 motherboard that uses AC97 audio. Got everything up and was repulsed by the audio quality from the AC97 onboard.

So, good time to revamp my audio end of this rig.
Currently i have Sony MDR-V900 cans, they are low impedence so are driven decently by most straight headphone outs.

Now, my dilema.....
Soundcard - Audigy 2 ZS or Revolution 7.1 or Chaintech AV-710
Need to have hardware 3D audio for gaming, this is a gaming rig, but good sound is important. I think the Revolution is the current frontrunner, even with the performance hit it is the best at blending hardware sound in games and qudio quality, I think.
Opinions?

Output - Headphone Amp or Harmon Kardon AVR-130/135 Reciver
Use the digital out from whatever sound card and use the reciver as an external DAC and amp or are the DACs on the cards better and it would be best just to get a headphone amp?

In the future i will be getting new cans, I have been lusting for a pair of Sony CD-3000s, so maybe with this infrastructure in place I can justify them finally since they wont be a shiney gold nugget in a heap of turds.

SF
 
i own the audigy 2 ZS and the sony's. They sound awesome. I also have a logitech Z-560's 4.1 sound system, and let me tell ya crisp and clear. But don't take my word for it.
 
If you have a pretty fast system, you probably won't notice a huge performance hit (if any) while using the Revolution or Chaintech. However if you still want max performance, go ahead and get the Audigy. You can always buy the Chaintech afterwards as a secondary sound card to use solely for music listening, and it's only like $25 bucks on newegg :) .

For my next system, I'm probably going for an Audigy 2 Value + Chaintech setup. Total cost runs to about the same pricetag of some of the regular Audigy 2's.
 
Crap, I say replace phones first. V900s are for DJs and that is about it.

But I am actually running a A2 ZS for desktop/games and an AV-710 for music. But to be honest, the AV-710 was a big step up from the A2 for stereo sound but I will be replacing it with a 1212M next month. But given the cost of AV-710 I think you better off with a combo. By the way, the ZS over hyped. For games I doubt you notice much difference from the old 5.1 cards or a the A2 value. I would save the cash if I had it to do over.

Output: Forget running just straight from the receiver because it will not provide enough amplification for the your headphones (yes the MDR-CD3000 are sensitive but they will still sound better with a good headphone amp). But I think you could digital out to the receiver, use it for the DAC, and run the head phones amp from the receiver (I could be wrong)? But yes, if you are willing to spend the cash a good external DAC would be better than a sound card. But either way you slice it you would still be using a headphone amp. Something like this:

sound card - headphone amp - headphones

sound card - DAC - headphone amp - headphones

(and if the DAC on your receiver can be used)
sound card - receiver - headphone amp - headphones.

I would post your question at Head-fi under either in the "Computer As A Source" or "Dedicated Source Components" and someone that really knows the score should be able to answer your question in depth.
 
I'm pretty damn happy with my set up, Audigy4pro + Senn hd280pro/Beyer dt770/z-680.

The A4pro is obviously teh w1n for games, but with fb2k taking the 44->48 resampling off it's hands the music playback quality through the new DACs is noticably improved over the A2.
 
Ya there is one positive review of the A4 as a good solution for the music/gaming issue but what did you pay for your A4 because the only one I have seen available now is $279 w/ a breakout box. At that cost he is better of spending $100 for an A2 ZS + AV710. Hell for that price he would be better off with A2 ZS + EMU 1212M. Same price and a much better sound card than the A4 for music.
 
I'd probably go for headphone amp and the cans you've got for what you want. That being said, the chaintech av710 is a fine stereo card.
 
I went from an Audigy2 ZS to an E-MU 1212M for games and music (primarily for headphone output) and have never looked back. I haven't noticed any performance hit from losing the Audigy2, but my music (and game audio, for that matter) sounds MUCH better.
 
Reading around here, other sites, reading card reviews (digit-life), and mainly Head-Fi forums.....

The Audigy 2ZS is really my only option for a sound card, atleast primary. No other card support hardware 3D acceleration like they do. None of the VIA chips do it in hardware, all software. I switched back to my onboard sound to see what games sound like without hardware 3D or 3D at all, and it sucked. Found the Tech Report CS:Source article and it showed a big performance hit with the Revolution 7.1 which was really the only VIA based card I was looking at.

Also, read up on the latest cans, and I want to get a pair of Audio-Technica AH900s. They are low impedence so I can drive them off anything.

Current solution looks to be Audigy 2ZS OEM and Audio-Technica A900s. Drive the cans right off the sound card for now.

Now, here is the kicker question......
Alot of people use a E-MU card with an Audigy, outputting the SPDIF to the E-MU and then analog out of the E-MU, reviews say the Audigy has good sound, and fora dwellers comment that the DACs on the Audigy are crappy.

Would running an external DAC with an Audigy make it sound fantabulous? Is the analog output side on the Audigy the sound quality issue?

SF
 
I'm not totally sure on this issue, but I know that Audigy2's automatically upsample to 48khz, which helps contribute to their poor sound. I'm assuming that this happens for both the analog and digital outputs, and if that is true, then an external DAC wouldn't be the best plan. Actually, they DAC would be fine, but not the Audigy :D I'd get some cheapo second card just to output to the DAC.
 
Scrith said:
I went from an Audigy2 ZS to an E-MU 1212M for games and music (primarily for headphone output) and have never looked back. I haven't noticed any performance hit from losing the Audigy2, but my music (and game audio, for that matter) sounds MUCH better.
Click to expand...

Yea, but with the Emu you lose out on outputting DD/DTS digitally, along with 5.1 surround, which sux. I'm especially miffed about not being able to output an AC-3 stream; I can't see any reason why the card shouldn't be able to handle it. Since Emu is owned by Creative, I'm going to place blame squarely on their driver team for being lazy.
 
Hhhmmm, and when was the last time you heard 5.1 sound through a headphone? Red herrings my man, red herrings.

I would run the cards separate and you will be fine. There is no reason that I can think of to degrade the EMU with the A2ZS.
 
Yea, it's a great card for listening to music, but I would still like it to pass DTS/DD. There's no reason it shouldn't be able to, considering it is the same chip as the Audigy2 anyways.
 
Right now I'm using Audigy4 Pro with KRK RP-8 Rokits for mains and Edirol MA-20D for surrounds, excellent setup for gaming and pro recording.
 
Hope this isn't too off topic...but i also have a pair of v900s and I like them quite a bit. for the price, i thought they were a good deal 2 years ago when i purchased them ($125).

what are the bad parts about the v900s compared to other closed headphones?
 
screwey response curve? over-all craptastic (TM) sound?

anywho... i use an audigy 2zs (for optical) with an external dac (Behringer DEQ2496) so i get great audio quality, and great gaming... thats really the ideal situation i guess... for me it made a huge performance difference in certain games too since i dont have the "ideal" gaming system, more designed for desktop publishing/programming but you gotta game every now and again right? :p :D
 
I would reccomend the revo 7.1 full out. I currently own the audigy 2zs but have heard the revo and its hard to understand how they both cost the same amount. I would trade my audigy in for a revo in a heartbeat and suffer the few lost fps because it would sound soo much nicer.
 
Ub312g0d654 said:
I would reccomend the revo 7.1 full out. I currently own the audigy 2zs but have heard the revo and its hard to understand how they both cost the same amount. I would trade my audigy in for a revo in a heartbeat and suffer the few lost fps because it would sound soo much nicer.
Click to expand...
Sound card experts... what would you say that the performance difference is between the Audigy 4 and the Revo 7.1

I plan on building a new system in a few months, but want the best.. I do everything including music and game on my machine.... is it worth it to get the revo instead? at the same time, I dont want games to suffer horribly either
 
FLECOM said:
screwey response curve?
Click to expand...

What screwy response curve are you talking about?????? :p



audigy.png
 
Ub312g0d654 said:
I would reccomend the revo 7.1 full out. I currently own the audigy 2zs but have heard the revo and its hard to understand how they both cost the same amount. I would trade my audigy in for a revo in a heartbeat and suffer the few lost fps because it would sound soo much nicer.
Click to expand...

Tech Reports CS:Source Beta sound card performance testing

Now, yes this is only one game/engine, but from just this one test convinced me that for gaming the "few fps" is a lot more than most assume. Audigy 2 ZS to Revo 7.1 was over a 10% loss, and the test was a a normal gaming res, not the typical 640x480 low details like most sound card reviews.

Something to consider...

SF
 
Flat? Look at that drop at the upper end! I feel like I need to add a picture of a boat going off the proverbial waterfall :D
 
I recommend the Audigy4 Pro. It has excellent DACs like the M-Audio, a nice external box, and much better gaming support.

I have the Audigy4 Pro hooked up to a pair of KRK RP-8 Rokits and Edirol MA-20D via analog and there is no interference at all, sounds just as good as when I hook it up with digital. The Audigy4 Pro also lets you select via software whether or not plugging in headphones mutes the speakers (some making a mix may want to have the speakers continue playing, while others who just want to quiet things may want the speakers muted automatically.)
 
I guess it comes down to whether high quality music is more important to you than game audio. To me, games like Half LIfe 2, Far Cry, Doom 3, etc. sound fine with my E-MU. And music is just ridiculously better with it than my old Audigy2 ZS.

I don't entirely understand the point of an external DAC for an Audigy sound card, since they are still going to be doing their crappy resampling to 48K (whether your output is analog or digital). You can lessen the quality hit you take from the Audigy hardware for music playback by using a program like Foobar (which enables you to use a better software-based resampler), but basically there is no way to get around the incredibly stupid hardware limitation of all Audigy sound cards that music (and all audio, for that matter) must be resampled to 48K. That is just too high a price to pay for "multi-channel 3D Audio" in my opinion. But everyone's priorities (and ears) are different.
 
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